Not gonna lie, 2020 is off to a mixed start…
This time though, it’s for everybody. These are unprecedented times for just about everyone alive today. Dealing with the Coronavirus has affected everyone differently, and it has affected EVERYONE. No one is alone in this fight. It’s quite remarkable to me that it took a deadly virus to unite mankind, and its effects on the world after the struggle still remain to be seen. I do believe that our world will never be the same.
I know everyone’s situations are different, and I am so very grateful for mine. Kaylee has been working from home for a couple weeks and her employment status has not been affected. In fact, she’s busier now than ever. I am fortunate enough to be on paid administrative leave through my job to do my part of Staying Home and Staying Safe. It has definitely been an adjustment, and usual routines and habits are changed. Staying home has been a little…. strange for me. Without going to work, limiting trips to the store, and limited travel in general (no weekend trips!), I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time at home in a stretch of my adult life. Sometimes it’s hard to get motivated, but my wheels keep turning!
So in the spirit of staying home and staying connected, I’m going to share what I’ve been up to at home. Check the gallery below for photos. The first project I tackled was making this little area behind our garage more accessible. It started out as a VERY neglected raised bed crumbling into the ground and totally overtaken by morning glory. Over time it’s transformed from a space we wanted to ignore into a pretty versatile little cove. Last fall I threw together the little white wooden gate from some pallets I pilfered, and we had some chickens in there for a short time before they were taken by what we think was a hungry raccoon. I cut out about an 8’ section of fencing bordering the alley on the other side of our garage and installed a swinging chain link gate. Now we’ve got another off-street parking spot, loading/unloading area, storage area, etc. at our disposal.
Next, Kaylee wanted another garden bed to put in the front of our house. She had sent me a link to an article containing a number of designs for planters and I liked the idea of doing a tiered bed. I started with a foundation block I had out back and gathered up the longest bits of scrap wood I could find. Instead of doing an in-line tiered bed, I decided I wanted to offset the rotation 45 degrees to give it a different look. All said and done, the only materials I actually bought were the screws and the block. All the wood came for free one way or another.
After that, I was in kind of a weird mood and decided I wanted to build a birdhouse. I had never built one before and we had a box of cedar shake laying around, so I spent a couple hours throwing this happy little thing together. Now it lives in our cherry tree and I think it’ll probably house our local backyard squirrel rather than any birds. The cat will love that.
The weather has been pretty forgiving lately, so I’ve been spending a lot of time in the yard. Kaylee’s been working on getting the gardens going and I tried to do my part by doing some edging and planting of some new bushes. Last night we got the sunflower starts in the ground and more veggies and flowers will be going in soon.
Most recently I wrapped up some interior projects. I was given a couple of live edge cedar slabs by a friend of mine and Kaylee and I decided to use these to update a couple of places. The first we used to replace the mantle above our fireplace. Trimmed down on the table saw a couple times, we used the same slab to make our mantle and our trim pieces. Check fit and ok’d, we sanded it all down and coated it with satin polyurethane to bring out the color and seal it all up. The same process went into finishing the next piece, which we decided to use in the laundry room. Trying to make the most of the square footage in our little house, we came by a free stackable washer and dryer that we swapped out for our old set. With the new space in the corner, Kaylee wanted a folding table. It seemed a perfect opportunity to use the majority of the remaining slabs, so in they went.
All said and done, I think things went pretty well. I’ve got at least a few more days of quarantine left ahead of me, and I’m sure there will be more projects and to-do’s checked off the list. I’m actually waiting on a pallet of brick to be delivered for another project as we speak. In the spirit of staying connected, I would love to hear from anyone out there about what you’ve been up to and how you’re making the most of our struggle right now. We’re all in this together and we will make it through. Be well!
